Monday, March 17, 2008

No Money for You, Dr. Dean

The day after Super Tuesday, a DNC phone bank caller reached us and asked for a pledge, which the spousal unit said we'd send. It was a substantial pledge.

Then came the Dean & Brazile Show downplaying Hillary's wins and trying to make Obama's thuggish caucus wins seem like democracy. We did not send in the money.

We have received our third "C'mon, pay up!" letter from the DNC. I sent it back with the pledge letter inside and wrote on the back that unless Michigan and Florida are seated at the convention (with or without a revote), the DNC will not get a penny from us. I said that I could not view Obama's nomination as legitimate unless the full delegations of all the states were present and voting, and would not provide funds to an organization that deliberately disenfranchises states for the benefit of one candidate and the detriment of another.

Good for you! I sent a letter (the old-fashioned kind) and made a phone call to the DNC (and to Nancy Pelosi) telling them that if Michigan and Florida Delegates were not going to be counted, then my vote would not need to be counted in November, because none will be cast (for the first time in my life).

I think their plan is to seat the delegates but neuter them, by making sure that they won't count. They'll let a few more primaries play out, and then Pelosi and Dean will get enough superdelegates to go to Obama and that will be that. Then they'll generously let the delegates be seated, but the nomination of Obama will be by acclamation; so it will be as if the Florida and Michigan primaries never occurred. "Well, we've punished you enough; we'll let you come to the convention, since you can't vote, anyway." I'm about 98% sure that this is what the DNC has in mind; and that they're only letting this play out a month or so more to look like they gave everyone a fair chance. But I don't think it will matter to them if Clinton wins PA by 20 points; they've already made their decision.

But they will feel it in the pocketbook, both for this election and for the future ones. Because the Obama people aren't really those who support this Party, as the loyal, long-time Democrats who are Hillary supporters do. The Obamaites are dilettantes; dissatisfied with politica and politicians, angry at much of the world; and they have glommed onto Obama as the anti-Clinton, the anti-politician, the anti-older person. But after Obama loses to McCain, they will lose interest in the whole process, and go back to playing video games or daytrading. They won't be helping the Democratic Party; they never did before. So where is the money going to come from?

Obama is bad enough; but the real villains are the Democratic hierarchy which is so eager to get rid of the Clinton influence, that they will sacrifice the White House this year, and the Democratic Party's future for decades. Anglachel astutely pointed out a month ago that Clinton could lock down the Hispanic vote for a generation, but the Democrats will throw that away. They will once again be seen as a Party of America-hating liberals who consort with '60's terrorists and angry Black people, and who can't be trusted to run this country. And where will the Democrats go from there, with no more Clintons and a repudiated Obama? Nowhere much, except to a series of conservative Southern Democrats. Hillary is the last in the New Deal-influenced line of the Party. All that will be left will be Republican-lites and economic libertarians with a bit of a social conscience. No national health care; no rebuilt middle class; no making the rich pay their fair share. And we won't even have the moral high ground any more, since we will have disenfranchised more voters than even Bush and his henchmen did. Let's thank Mr. Dean, Ms. Brazile and Ms. Pelosi for accomplishing this over the votes of millions of hard-working Democratic voters.

I do the same thing Anglachel. I've already send emails to Pelosi and Dean and I called the DNC. I refuse send the DNC money until Pelosi and Dean are out of office. And they must be dreaming if they think Clinton supporters will send them money for the general if Obama wins without seating *both* Florida and Michigan delegates.

I think the saddest thing about this whole deal is that the DNC is throwing the democratic base ( the other 2/3 of it ) under the bus. It's like watching this strange infectous corruptable sickness overtake the party. I wonder if this was how honest conservative republicans who did'nt give a damn about the culture wars felt when the right hijacked their party? Maybe heading to Canada. It's hard to spit square in a hurricane. It's even harder to watch your party leaders light the TNT. Obama and his supporters are killing the party through these tactics. It's like watching Lieberman kiss up to McCain. Truly sickening. I hope Hillary stays in and does'nt give up. Fl. and Mich. will leave a lasting scar on the democratic party, when coupled with the congressional performance of Pelosi,Kerry,and others ( add party incompetence )I don't think the DNC will recover. The party of the working class and the disenfranchised, the party of FDR will soon be gone if the party keeps this course. Obama is no more a uniter than Bush is. In fact as far as I can see he prooves himself to be the other side of the coin. As Lieberman is to McCain, Obama and Axelrod are to Bush/Rove.